Today's Opinions

A wall by itself is not the answer to illegal immigration. It’s one of many steps, such as fixing the visa program and lowering those numbers, securing our northern border and stopping the catch-and-release program.
Walls do work. Just ask Israel. Many of those who hate President Trump’s wall have walls around their mansions or their gated communities.

South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) makes records and meetings of public bodies open and available to citizens and their representatives in the press.
This openness is important because it allows the public to learn about the performance of public officials and the expenditure of public funds.

The S.C. Commerce Department has paid $2.9 million since fiscal 2015 to a state-created nonprofit that listed $69 million in net assets as of June 30 and now wants lawmakers to double its main funding source.
Asked for specifics on the money paid to the Columbia-based S.C. Research Authority, Commerce spokeswoman Alex Clark said the department and SCRA have been “involved in a number of partnerships over the last several years,” including:

You can make a difference.
Back in 2008, Forbes Magazine published a list of the top ten most distressed towns in America, and Lancaster topped the list. The outcry from the community was loud and urgent. In fact, “We Are Lancaster” signs can still be found dangling from fence posts and buildings scattered about town.

Since the 2017 collapse of the V.C. Summer nuclear project – which the legislature made possible through a quietly passed law 10 years earlier – lawmakers and state utility regulators collectively have spent at least $729,000 on consultants hired to give them advice or issue reports.

The current proposal by District 4 county council member Larry Honeycutt to reverse the Unified Development Ordinance requirement that subdivision builders along the path of the Carolina Thread Trail fund its construction is shortsighted and misguided.
Indian Land needs more recreation opportunities for its fast-growing population, not less. Mr. Honeycutt’s conclusions that we can better use trail money to build fire stations and libraries is ludicrous on its face.

Lancaster County friends and neighbors, it is unacceptable for county council to reduce our strong Carolina Thread Trail policy in the UDO down to just “the developers offering easements.”
There are too many alternatives and too many nuanced questions to consider. Is the developer a large corporation or a small business? Is it more feasible for a paved trail or a natural path? Should the county or the neighborhood HOA be responsible for maintaining it? There is a creative, cost-effective solution.

No one wants to go through a lifetime being penalized for something they did wrong when they were 18 or 20 years old.
Imagine you’re 35, 40 or even 50, with children and a family, and you have never been able to get a good job with wages sufficient to support yourself or your loved ones. All because your criminal record keeps you locked in the past.
S.C. law offers an expungement process that removes items from a person’s criminal record, restoring hope and a second chance to those who have made mistakes in the past and paid their debt to society.